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Elon Musk's SpaceX NASA contracts threatened over Tesla China ties
Washington Examiner ^ | 08/26/2020 | by Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter

Posted on 08/26/2020 10:45:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Congressional negotiators are considering whether NASA contracts awarded to Elon Musk's SpaceX represent a potential national security risk due to Chinese financial support for the billionaire owner's electric car company, Tesla.

“What is there to stop them from going to Musk directly and saying, 'We'll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X, Y, or Z?'” said a congressional Republican aide involved in negotiations over the comprehensive legislation governing the space agency. “And, there's no real clarity that there's any kind of mechanism that would stop that other than good behavior by an individual.”

The question underscores the suspicion coursing through Washington and Beijing, where national security officials prosecute an intensifying geopolitical rivalry by economic means. China’s penchant for intellectual property theft has created uncertainty even around federal government contracts awarded to American captains of industry like Musk, a pioneer of private sector spaceflight and electric cars.

“I'm concerned that companies in China could come into the U.S., make a sweetheart deal, take sensitive information, take proprietary technologies, and use it to enrich their own space program, their own national security efforts in China,” Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican member of the Commerce Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

So, Gardner, who also chairs the Foreign Relations subcommittee for East Asia, offered two amendments addressing that risk. The first would have the Government Accountability Office review NASA contractors for potential ties to China, while the second advises NASA leaders to “take into account” those ties when awarding contracts. “The level of concern I'm hearing from companies who are in the U.S. and are concerned about this is alarming,” Gardner said.

The amendments decry the specter of an American company that works with NASA being “leveraged” by the Chinese Communist Party due to “significant financial assistance” from Beijing.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; colorado; corygardner; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; ivankatrump; nasa; redpill; spacex; tesla; twitter

1 posted on 08/26/2020 10:45:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

2 posted on 08/26/2020 10:47:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe he can take SpaceX to China as well


3 posted on 08/26/2020 10:48:14 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind; bagster

:: I’m concerned that companies in China could come into the U.S., make a sweetheart deal, take sensitive information, take proprietary technologies, and use it to enrich their own space program, their own national security efforts in China ::

My God, man!
What have you paying attention to since the EFFING Nixon administration?
That is ALL the heathen Chinee have done to the US since RMN.


4 posted on 08/26/2020 10:49:17 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel ( Scatology is serendipitous.)
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And, seriously, a line of credit with the PRC is about to become the value of a bushel of rice.
Musk will be able to pay the call with his pocket change.


5 posted on 08/26/2020 10:51:24 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel ( Scatology is serendipitous.)
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To: SeekAndFind

No worries, Obama dictated that NASA’s mission priority was to enrich the lives of Muslims, and the Chinese hate Muslims


6 posted on 08/26/2020 10:51:41 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: SeekAndFind

As TSLA stock hits a NEW 52-week high today.


7 posted on 08/26/2020 10:53:16 AM PDT by Rio
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To: SeekAndFind

The Swamp doesn’t like the lower prices and quick delivery SpaceX provides. There isn’t as much money to steal and it’s tougher to get away with it.


8 posted on 08/26/2020 10:56:14 AM PDT by Moonman62 (http://www.freerepublic.com/~moonman62/)
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To: butlerweave

Maybe he can take SpaceX to China as well

...

No he can’t. SpaceX follows strict rules and laws set by the government for national security purposes.


9 posted on 08/26/2020 10:58:51 AM PDT by Moonman62 (http://www.freerepublic.com/~moonman62/)
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To: SeekAndFind

For a minute i thought they finally started grilling Diane Feinstein...


10 posted on 08/26/2020 11:05:05 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Bump.


11 posted on 08/26/2020 11:06:33 AM PDT by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: SeekAndFind

SpaceX is the only US company that has the capability to launch humans into space. And Starship is way out in front of everyone in the world. Now the long knives are out for Musk. gardner is a POS, I trust Elon a hell of a lot more then gardner or this congress.


12 posted on 08/26/2020 11:12:36 AM PDT by JoSixChip (Its not about color, its about character.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Follow the money. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) doesn’t like the competition.


13 posted on 08/26/2020 11:17:52 AM PDT by IndispensableDestiny
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

“My God, man!
What have you paying attention to since the EFFING Nixon administration?”
How about the relations China had with the Russians after and during that period of time. Which is what RMN was after including border clashes.


14 posted on 08/26/2020 11:18:03 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin posting here for the record hoping somebody might read and pass around)
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To: SeekAndFind

funny, SpaceX and Tesla are separate company, spaceX is in Hawthorne in Socal, Telsa is in NoCal. I bet Boeing and ULa are into this


15 posted on 08/26/2020 11:28:23 AM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!at)
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To: SeekAndFind

The future of Tesla has been wagered in China. Musk has located major manufacturing facilities in China and intends to market his EVs in China. The company will be finished within five years. Chinese workers, technicians, scientists and executives staff Tesla’s Chinese facilities. All of Tesla’s software, battery and manufacturing technology will be “shared” with China’s own EV manufacturers.They will produce comparable products much cheaper. It is highly unlikely that any profits from Tesla sales in China will ever be remitted to its stockholders in the US.The EV market in the US is extremely limited without coercive legislation.

Musk knows it will ultimately fail. However his gambit has already made him perhaps the world’s wealthiest man since Tesla stock ( a company with no profits) trades close to $2,000/share. Musk’s personal stock holding have a book value of over $40 billion. The US Government is rightly concerned that any Space X technology will also be “shared” with China.


16 posted on 08/26/2020 11:45:02 AM PDT by allendale
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To: SeekAndFind
Lets see, lets make US manned space dependent on SpaceX...then lets take care of this China connection...good strategy.


17 posted on 08/26/2020 12:53:07 PM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Tesla China Ties ensure that all data involved will be transmitted straight to the PLA and the CCP. It is necessarily part of any arrangement that involves “China ties.


18 posted on 08/26/2020 2:05:21 PM PDT by arthurus (covfefe..bat)
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To: Magnum44
It was not a NASA strategy to make them dependent on SPACEX. It's that SPACEX is so far ahead in innovation of the other troglodyte Aerospace industry which is all fixated on the current DOD procurement process.

Look at Boeing's efforts. A lot more expensive and way behind, including having software issues. And you can bet that Boeing is following all the NASA imposed standards for software quality control, all of them except the part that says that the system has to work.

Systems design and engineering has fallen on woeful times. The likes of Kelly Johnson are long gone and replaced with procurement and project management bureaucrats.

19 posted on 08/26/2020 4:33:50 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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